I really rate this album... it's definitely going to be in my top 10 of 2008 when I do the list. It's a real slow burner that reveals more and more beauty with each listen. To these ears it has an autumnal feel... but would sound equally amazing in the summer on a beach... in Barcelona probably.

A question for Mr Kesin... why oh why is it not available on vinyl?... as this is surely the perfect format for it. Also the same goes for the Religious Knives and Free Kitten releases.
I need all of these releases on vinyl!
c'mon
c'mon
c'mon...

[quote=toxic johnny]I really rate this album... it's definitely going to be in my top 10 of 2008 when I do the list. It's a real slow burner that reveals more and more beauty with each listen. To these ears it has an autumnal feel... but would sound equally amazing in the summer on a beach... in Barcelona probably.

Seeing as groups such as Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, and Yeasayer helped shape the sound of summertime with their popular psych-washed acoustic folk, it's unsurprising that similar sounding acts have begun to show up in the spaces between. Hush Arbors, a duo consisting of songwriter Keith Wood (contributor to records by Current 93 and Six Organs Of Admittance, along with many others) and his long-time collaborator Leon Dufficy, have actually been performing a lot longer than any of those acts-- almost a decade, in fact. So it's an ironic yet familiar tale that this recent wave of new music might help bring them belated attention. For those who haven't yet heard the band's delicate, experimental free-folk compositions, Hush Arbors is a great place to start and adroitly encompasses all of the Virginia based duo's most engaging qualities.
While the mostly instrumental opening track of Hush Arbors, "Water", does little to prepare the listener for what to expect from the rest of the album, it makes for a startling introduction. The barrage of ultra-fuzzed guitar drone provides a stylistic link to earlier releases, such as their 3" CD-R Cleaning the Bone from 2005, and actually serves as a sonic cleanser of sorts. When the rivers of feedback fade, the music suddenly lifts and a common thread begins to unfold. There's a lot of gorgeous acoustic fingerpicking that promptly brings Bert Jansch to mind, although this is occasionally balanced by the electric guitar textures of Wood's pal in Six Organs of Admittance, Ben Chasny. On "Follow Closely", Chasny's barbed guitar lines actually highlight the character of the songwriting while bringing the vivid imagery of Wood's lyrics to life when he sings "It came swimming swiftly through her eyes and touched me gently, a double flame grew around her head/ She flicked her tongue and she kissed me on the lips, and I felt it burn, I felt it burn."
Stark and contemplative, "Rue Hollow" is the only track on the album to stick to acoustic guitar alone, and is outstanding due to its elegant simplicity. Wood has the unmistakable vocal inflections and sorrowful yet hopeful cadences of Mazzy Star on this song. Stringing falsetto across a carefully layered, circular guitar line, it is all the more impressive for being unembellished by other instrumentation. Wood clearly has a keen ear for knowing when to hold back and when to expand the possibilities of the song. "Sand" is one of the most melodically developed tracks on Hush Arbors, and despite sticking to a fairly liner dynamic, the hushed, slow burn of delayed guitar hovering in the background like a string quartet gives movement to the music and grounds other melodic ideas as they shift in and out of the verses with contrasting shades.
Taking a full circle of sorts, the album closes with "Water II". There's a return to the dark, even hallucinogenic, sea of distortion that introduces the first track, but this time it's pierced with a rough, swirling riff that sounds as though it could overthrow everything going on around it. On this song, Wood gradually ties in the themes that have colored the album lyrically. Water, mountains, light, and mysterious women give weight to every track, brought to life by the ethereal, unpredictable cascade of sounds that take their place among them.

Edition of 500 copies LP with screenprinted sleeves, this is the first solo vinyl release by Paul Labrecque of Sunburned Hand Of The Man and it feels like the long-awaited follow-up to the classic album he cut with Valerie Webb, Trees, Chants and Hollers on Eclipse. It's a mix of psychedelic banjo hymns - some of which are cut up with glorious widescreen field recordings of thunder cracking and rain pouring down - and ancient sounding guitar instrumentals that would build a bridge between Sandy Bull's settings of sacred music and the most ecstatic Popol Vuh recordings. A ton of atmosphere on this and it beats hands-down virtually any 'American primitive' solo guitar release of the last too many years. This is solo string thought that genuinely bears comparison with the Takoma sound - historically, aesthetically, sonically - while sounding nothing like the work of a 'pupil' and factoring in a bunch of wildcard styles, ranging from monolithic European rock through apocalyptic UK space/folk and drugged 90s underground. A totally fantastic late night transport, a modern classic, highly recommended.

this is my first time posting on here, can you guys recommend something to get from ecstatic peace, I' want to order something off there but haven't heard of any of it other then Trees Outside The Academy, what is the best stuff on the label?

this is my first time posting on here, can you guys recommend something to get from ecstatic peace, I' want to order something off there but haven't heard of any of it other then Trees Outside The Academy, what is the best stuff on the label?

Tall Firs, dude. It's not necessarily the "best" stuff on the label (seeing as "best" is a pretty subjective term), but it is v. good, and if you like Trees Outside The Academy, there's a good chance you'll like it. The first one if acoustic music is your taste, the second if you like your stuff a bit more electric.

this is my first time posting on here, can you guys recommend something to get from ecstatic peace, I' want to order something off there but haven't heard of any of it other then Trees Outside The Academy, what is the best stuff on the label?

"best" would depend on where your head is at. EP output ranges from free noise to crazy skree to rock.

Anyway, until they finally release the Eunuchs of Industry lp, their best is still to come.

JEMINA PEARL LIVE THIS SATURDAY!!Jemina takes a break from writing and recording to rock for you and THE FLUID in Bucktown

After Be Your Own Pet's final show last year Pitchfork wrote "If there is indeed any justice in this world-- this won't be the last we hear from Jemina Pearl." It seems that indeed justice prevails as Jemina returns for her first solo show, opening for seminal SubPop act The Fluid at the Music Hall of Williamsburg this Saturday January 17. Fresh off the lower east side deflowering of Gossip Girl with Thurston Moore, she's poised to kill it with a sick band that includes former BYOPer John Eatherly, ex- Turbo Max, and Tall Firs' Ryan Sawyer.

Jemina Pearl
"Singer Jemina Pearl was the star of a long set filled with close to 30 sub- two minute heart attacks....Pearl's dancing is half the show, an inebriated shamanic ritual screaming on speed instead of peyote. Parading across the show stumbling into her guitarists, Pearl looked like she was entangled in a power line." -Derek Sagehorn, Daily Californian

"Pearl--who might break 100 pounds soaking wet, while wrapped in a down comforter, and holding a St. Bernard--comes across as winning the frontperson spot because her pipes unleash the best scream. And everybody else is afraid to fuck with her....(she) continues to have the best snarl in rock, a throaty, corporeal roar with such a husky belt to it that you can't quite figure out how it comes out of the young woman onstage. And there's the onstage charisma--the wide eyes that appear to roll into the back of her head when she's shaking her entire torso around as if she's trying to escape a straitjacket, the back-and-forth head wagging with such force that you wouldn't be surprised if her head came flying off midverse (and kept right on screaming), the shock-treatment dance that combines a circa-1964 go-go dancer's legs shimmy, arms flailing as if enduring a seizure-induced trauma, and hair standing at attention as if she touched a Tesla coil." Bret McCabe, City Paper

"Can you imagine Bonnie Langford-like Jemina being hailed as a Sevigny-type high fashion icon in the way Karen O is? Exactly. The famed onstage-puker would be too busy wiping the stage clear of her vomit or selling her own T-shirts to check out the winter collection. Like a cat gently clawing your ankles to buggery, Jemina is an hilarious ball of punky, peroxide mania underpinned by sweetness and light, and an exhilarating combination of John Lydon, Giant Drag's Annie Hardy and (thin) Britney" --NME

"Jemina Pearl's over-the-top rant- yowling earned its eponymous debut disc a parental advisory sticker. And her onstage antics with the group -- where she's often attired in tank top, jogging shorts and tube socks -- are so frenetic, sets rarely last longr than 15- 30 minutes." -Tom Lanham, BNET.com

The Fluid
To call the Fluid responsible for some of the most monstrous stage performances of the late 80s and early 90s isn't the irresponsible verbage of someone with a limited frame of reference, but a commonly held opinion that'll tumble from the mouth of pretty much anyone who saw them during that time period. They were carelessly lumped in with the grunge phenom, but rather than toiling away with sludgy riffs stuck in first gear, the Fluid tapped heavily into the explosive presence of bands like Black Flag or The MC5 and propelled that energy into lurching rock anthems that summoned absloute hammer-pulsed desperation amongst show-goers. They had the hooks, they had the looks, and they drove the crowd absolutely mental on every occasion I was fortunate enough to see them. If anyone deserves a DVD career retrospective, it's the Fluid.

The Overcasters
"Overcasters. This is one of those bands that needs to be seen to be understood and felt. They started playing out last year, and I was constantly running into people who were surprised by "what they sounded like." Now I can see why. The Overcasters play the kind of music that could score your dreams in those deep hours of rapid eye movement sleep. Peek through the gauzy guitars and all those instrumental effects and you'll hear a familiar voice -- singer-guitarist Kurt Ottaway -- although you've never quite heard this side of him before... "- Ricardo Baca, denverpost.com That's it for now. Thanks for the support. Tell us how we can help.

Brand new bizzarro LP from SBHOTM, first ever release of the wax variety on Blackest Rainbow, co-released with Ohio's Lost Treasures of the Underworld. 2 sides of coloured vinyl featuring amassed vocal based weirdness from the Sunburned crew, with the odd slumber jam, and even abit of thrash thrown in to fuck with your mind...! Limited to 500 copies, both labels are sold out. Picture disc sleeves, full colour insert, small insert, and available on 5 different coloured vinyls.